Re: Which way would you go?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ChrisS
I want a new guitar, I've been to music shops trying out different models. And recently have started looking at guitar kits. Now here's my dilemma: do I buy a guitar or build my own?
Pros of building:
higher quality for less or equal money
Pride of building it myself
Get exactly what I want
Cons:
Never done it before could mess up
It takes months or longer to build
Pros of buying
Play immediately
Know it's made right
Cons
Less guitar for the money
Can't get exactly what I want (without spending 2 arms a leg and my boy)
A few things to know, I've never done any woodwork other than building a few chicken coops. But I'm a fast learner and will be purchasing 2 books and a 6 hr DVD on building guitars. And I'm leaning towards building the guitar only thing holding me back is the fear or messing up and wasting $5-700 plus in wood, and hours put into it. Not to mention the specific tools required to do the work, if I'm not capable of building ill be stuck with tools that I can't use.
Build it.
You could use hand tools (which would take longer but lessen the cost as well as the likelihood of messing it up), start with "cheaper" wood (maple versus rosewood for the body, spruce instead of koa, etc. and then use something "cheaper" like maple instead of koa or wenge or rosewood on the neck. Same for the frets). Where I live, ebony is about 90 bucks a board foot...and that's some serious money to throw down to possibly screw up. Not knocking your skills or abilities, but I thought about doing the same thing (building versus buying). Start small and save yourself some headaches; get the beginners curve out of the way with "cheaper" woods, figure out what, if anything you need to correct on the next one and then go from there. I looked on E-Bay and found some really nice book-matched tops out of exotics (koa, bubinga, curly malple, etc.) for not too much money. You could do it on a budget, I'd just recommend starting out slow before you dive right in. Inevitably something will get messed up and if you're a grand into the materials alone, that's a horrible feeling. Maybe you could build a uke first, to get started? Not making fun, I'm serious. It's the same basic design concept with most of the same parts, just on a smaller scale. Try your hand at that, get a feel for it and then go from there. Good luck and please share some pics if you decide to tackle it! :gj:
This web-site gets into the "tones" of wood and to some degree their ease (or lack thereof!) of workability:
http://www.jemsite.com/jem/wood.htm
If you've never messed with exotics (woods), be careful. A lot of them cause skin irritation, breathing problems as well as acting as sensitizers if you're exposed to the dust/particulate while you're working with them. Take care and again, best of luck!
